Irish singer Orla Gartland 'can't believe' Ivor Novello win

RTÉ News​

23-05-2025

Irish singer Orla Gartland has said she "can't believe" she won an Ivor Novello award following her success at the awards ceremony in London on Thursday night.
The Dubliner won the Best Song Musically and Lyrically award for her track Mine, beating the likes of compatriots Fontaines DC and the British acts Raye and Lola Young.
Speaking to Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning after her big win, Gartland said: "I've just woken up and I still can't believe it.
"My parents came over for it, I almost didn't want them to come over for it as I felt there was such little chance of winning but I was so glad they were there."
When Callan said it was a "lovely thing to win", Gartland agreed wholeheartedly.
"It is, it's my first time being at anything like that or having a red carpet experience, but it's a really special one," she said.
"The category that I was in is decided by other songwriters, the panel are my peers or people through the generations who are making music, so there's no big corporate aspect to it, it feels like it's actually about the music. I don't know if that's the same for some of the other awards."
She also joked that she asked British popstar Charli XCX, who was named Songwriter of the Year at the awards, for a photo but "got rejected".
"Not by her, by handlers?", Callan asked in surprise.
"She did have some people with her, it was all very chic," Gartland laughed. "I actually really respected it, it was very cool.
"There was a red carpet room you got brought into after you win, I wanted to respect her space, so I asked my manager to ask who she was with. She probably would have said yes to her credit."
Speaking about the progression of her career, Gartland added: "It's a marathon not a sprint. I've done this job since school and I've never had one big viral overnight rise, it's been really gradual.
"I'm very content with that, I'm very grateful because it feels like it's never got bigger than where I'm at. If you do get a moment in the spotlight in this job they rarely come around a second time and I'm glad that all of this is happening at this point and not a few years ago. I feel ready for it."
"Playing live shows is a skill in itself, it takes years to become good at that, it's a different set of skills to writing songs. I played The Olympia just over a month ago, which is obviously a dream venue, again I was just happy that that didn't happen sooner.
"I felt like the show was at the right level for my name to be on that ticket. I'm very happy with the pace of it all."